Surrounded by sand

Water, at last! For centuries, caravans traveling along the Silk Road that stretched between East Asia and the Mediterranean would stop here at Yueya Quan (Moon Crescent Spring) to quench their thirst. The oasis is surrounded by dunes up to 300 meters high, and back in the 1960s, the natural lake had a maximum depth of 7.5 meters. In subsequent years, the water level began falling so dramatically that the popular tourist attraction looked set to dry out, but in 2006, the Chinese authorities filled it up again.

Getting there from Germany

Lufthansa flies several times daily from Frankfurt (FRA) and Munich (MUC) to ­Beijing (PEK). Star Alliance partner Air China flies on to Dunhuang (DNH). From there, take a bus or cab to Moon Crescent Spring